Scary cable car - great view!
by sherwoodFL
The "Cable Car" that you can take up to the top of Purple Mountain (Zijinshan) is actually more of a ski lift. It doesn't stop for you to get on or off - you have to stand and wait for it to hit the back of your knees - and the only safety bar is one you pull over your heads yourself. It looks fairly rusty and every now and then trees will hit your feet as you ride - it must be hard to keep them trimmed. I would definitely not do it with small children. On the other hand, if you feel like an adventure, you get a gorgeous view of the city (or as good as it gets, with the smog), and when was the last time you were dangling hundreds of feet above a Chinese Mountain, trying to watch out for trees? You can also get off at the Zijinshan Observatory (it's halfway up) and combine two Off the Beaten Path activities in one.
The Sacrificial Hall
by snuggie
The Sacrificial Hall is a palace of 30 meters in length, 25 meters in width and 29 meters in height. In the center of the hall stand a 4.6m high statue of Dr Sun.
The statue was sculptured out of white marble produced in Italy.
The Yan Zhenqing Memorial Stele Forest
by marsistanbul
Stele Forest is located some dozens of meters to the north of the Dinglin Mountain Villa.To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japan diplomatic relation and promote the calligraphy art and the upright spirit of Yan Zhenqing,a famous calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty(618-907),Japan Calligraphy Art Assocition donated the stele forest in 1992.It covers an area of about 2000sqm and includes a memorial archway,a tablet corridor,a pavillion and other buildings.
A stone memorial archway stands at the entrance to the stele forest with five characters engraved into its horizontal board in the handwritting of Yan Zhenqing.To the northeast of the stelesis a set-free pond,with pavilion beside in imitation of the Tang Dynasty style.
Zhonghua Gate
history
Hunan Road
